CEM Educators: History and Misplaced Community

The history of construction engineering and management education closely follows the emergence of the construction industry as an economic force in the United States. The initial introduction of programs in the post-World War II era was followed by specialization and the introduction of graduate construction specialties in the early 1960s as the industry demanded better educated and prepared professionals. The number of civil engineering programs offering construction graduate specialties grew from a handful to over 50 by the 1980s. Concurrently, the recruitment and development of CEM faculty became a primary focus of concern from both universities and the profession. Specifically, the lack of qualified individuals was recognized as a factor in successfully developing the CEM focus as an academic discipline. Today, that concern continues as CEM programs in the United States find themselves under attack by academic colleagues for issues such as lack of qualified faculty candidates and lack of funding opportunities, and by the construction industry for a perceived lack of knowledge about the everyday concerns of the profession. The combination of these forces has set in place the environment for CEM educators to work together as a community to reply to and resolve some of these longstanding issues. With almost half of the 120 active CEM faculty members graduating from only five universities, a common foundation is set to act as a unified community. Additionally, this sense of community should be strengthened by similarity in research focus. As outlined in this paper, a study of over 3,000 research papers establishes six common research eras from which the current CEM faculty originated. However, external forces such as research funding and promotion requirements continue to challenge this direction. This paper addresses this situation by examining the common history of the CEM faculty through a genealogical approach, the historical research record through an examination of the publication record, and the forces that are preventing the growth of a stronger CEM community.